In this day and age, IT is essential to day to day business operations. Loss of access to data or, loss of stored data entirely, is a true disaster forall businesses. While most think of floods and fires when they think of IT outages, there are other risks to consider, such as employee theft or even the sudden death of a key employee.

The reality is that disasters come in large and small varieties and it is near impossible to anticipate what might happen or how much it will impact your company. This is why it is important to be prepared. Unfortunately, most do not place disaster recovery on their todo list.

It’s important to note that backing up data is a good first step, but is not a Disaster Recovery plan. In fact, many disasters come from loss of backup data itself, especially if backup servers are stored on site. Creating correct processes and procedures for different disaster scenarios is key.

The other key piece of Disaster Recovery Planning is testing. It is crucial to test the backup process and run through different data loss scenarios in order to be truly prepared for disaster.

Unfortunately, according to the IT Disaster Recovery Preparedness (DRP) Council, even among those who have Disaster Recovery plans: “Nearly one in four respondents never tested their DR plans, and one-third of those surveyed test plans only once or twice a year. When companies do test, more than 65% do not pass their own DR tests.”

So what can you do?

First and foremost, add “Create a Disaster Recovery Plan” to your ToDo list for 2017.

Audit your IT system, which means looking at security, access and storage for software, hardware and backup data.

After making necessary security changes, draft the Disaster Recovery plans and procedures for different common outage scenarios like loss of passwords, destruction of hardware, hacking or viruses, and backup failure (as just some examples).

Finally, test each and every Disaster Recovery process by running through a drill of the unfortunate scenario.

Auditing and drafting the Disaster Recovery plan can be a complex process. In addition to choosing the right hardware and software security, important questions like “Who will execute the plan? Do you have the materials required for execution? Do you have the resources to sustain the company while recovering?” must also be answered.

If this is a daunting task for your small business, Parallel Solutions can help. We offer system audit services for Disaster Recovery and can recommend changes to both hardware and software and consulting on backup procedures and processes. Don’t wait until disaster strikes. Call us today at (440)498-9920 and be prepared to make the best of a worst case scenario.